


OC-tober: Youth (Minerva)

by Chibitami



Series: OP OC: Minerva [6]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Akuma no Mi | Devil Fruit, Ficlet, Gen, One Shot, Original Character(s), Prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:01:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26881099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chibitami/pseuds/Chibitami
Summary: For oc-growth-and-development's 2020 October challenge!A short story recounting how 9 year old Minerva D. Colossa received her Devil Fruit: the No No no Mi!
Series: OP OC: Minerva [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654321
Kudos: 3





	OC-tober: Youth (Minerva)

"Mama, look! I think I found a new species!"

Corona looked up from the plant specimens laid out in front of her, hearing her daughter's excited voice from the outskirts of the forest near their home. She saw Minerva, running as fast as her small legs could allow, with a large...thing...in her arms. Corona raised an eyebrow; as a master of botany and the island's resident expert on local plant life, it was surprising to see a plant she couldn't recognize. She rose up from her outdoor examination table and met her daughter. Minerva's forehead was shiny with a thin layer of sweat, and the ponytail that Corona had so expertly tied to keep her daughter's wild purple hair contained had a number of flyaway pieces of hair here and there.

Minerva eagerly held up her specimen for her mother to look at, panting after her sprint back home through the forest. "I found it on a tree," she explained, bouncing on her heels a bit as Corona took the strange plant in her gloved hands. "It was the only fruit on it, and aside from the grass near the tree, there wasn't any surrounding vegetation. Ooh, maybe it's got a really big territorial root system, so nothin' else can grow near it!"

Corona peered at the fruit, and her eyes narrowed behind her glasses.  _ An incredibly hard shell for a fruit in this area,  _ she mused, running her fingers over the ridges of the plant. It almost felt like she was touching a piece of glazed clay rather than the outer layer of something like a dragonfruit or a mango. "The color's certainly something I haven't seen before," she said out loud. The entire fruit was a shade of bubblegum pink, with curves and ridged spirals that had a darker color of magenta to them. With the odd colors and swirled shapes, it almost looked like a brain--even the stem that Minerva had snapped off when harvesting the fruit managed to resemble a human brain stem, if the human brain was about three times bigger than it should be. 

The shape's resemblance certainly wasn't lost on Minerva; even though she was just shy of her tenth birthday, her interest in neurology and all things "brainy" had been her primary academic interest for years. "It looks like a brain, dontcha think?" Minerva smirked and absentmindedly fiddled with a stray piece of hair. "I mean, real brains are actually kinda gray, it's just the blood and arteries that make it  _ look  _ pink when it's exposed during surgery and stuff...But still!" She beamed at the plant. "Can we put it under your microscope?"

Corona hemmed and hawed, peering at the swirling shapes on the outside of the fruit. She'd never seen a plant like this before, but this pattern was certainly familiar. "A lone fruit on a tree with no immediate surrounding vegetation," she muttered. "And these shapes…" A moment of realization made her eyes widen, and she quickly set the fruit down onto her table before turning to Minerva. "Puella, would you go to Papa's bookshelf in the study and get something for me?"

Minerva could tell by the shine in her mother's eyes that she had found something  _ very  _ interesting. She nodded. "What book do you need, Mama?"

"I only know the name of the translation your father did of it, so you might have to get his translated version for me to read," Corona explained. Her husband was one of the kingdom's best authorities on the languages spoken outside of Romora, and spent time translating books as a hobby. She remembered a reference book he had translated and given to her as a birthday present years ago--a thick tome originally titled  _ The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia _ . "The Romoran name of it should be something like  _ De Fructibus Deorum _ ."

Minerva's eyes grew as wide as her mothers. "Did I find one? Did I find a Fructeus, Mama!?" She'd only ever seen pictures of them in artwork and books! This would be the greatest discovery of her life...so far!

Corona smiled and crossed her arms. "Well, we won't know until we look at that book," she teased. "Go on, go on!"

Minerva ran through the rest of the backyard garden, carefully stepping over and maneuvering around the various flowers, fruits, and vegetables her mother had planted until she made it to the back entrance of her family home. She quickly wiped her feet on the outside mat and continued on through the house until she reached the study. Her father was lounging in his plush chair, enjoying a small cup of tea and an old foreign mystery novel that he'd read a million times before. He looked up after hearing his daughter's frantic footsteps and saw her standing at the door.

"Eager for a new book to read, Puella?" He smiled warmly and set down his tea. "I've got some older books I'd borrowed from Ohara a few years back. I can't read the ancient text in some sections, but the rest is at a level of Nocaligo that you should be able to translate--"

"Later," Minerva panted, resting her hands on her knees while she caught her breath. "Papa, where's your...copy... _ Devil Fruit Encyclopedia _ ...Mama...translated version, please…"

Aurelius raised a bushy eyebrow. "Your mother wants that reference book?" He knew his daughter had a thirst for knowledge and a passion for learning, but she'd never sounded this eager and desperate for a book. Could Corona have found…

He stood straight up and briskly headed to one of his wife's bookshelves, scanning for one of his binders where he kept his translated books that he'd added to her collection. "Let's see, let's see...Aha!  _ The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia _ , or known to us as  _ De Fructibus Deorum _ ." He pulled out the binder and held it to his chest. "You know, I've always wondered why us Romorans refer to them as  _ Fructeus  _ or 'Fruits of the Gods' while the common Nocaligo name for them is 'Devil Fruit'. I mean, both refer to supernatural and theological beings being the origin of these plants, but the referencing of Devils as opposed to Gods gives the Fruits a morally dark slant to their--"

Minerva tugged at her father's hand; she knew that he could go on and on about semantics if she didn't manage to reel him back into the actual conversation at hand. "Papa, can we talk about this later? Mama needs the book!"

Aurelius blushed, embarrassed at being caught in one of his many tangents. "O-of course, dear," he replied. "Lead the way!"

The two of them went to the backyard where Corona was eagerly waiting. She took the binder from Aurelius and flipped through the pages, searching for any image that matched the possible Fructeus on her examination table. "Let's see...Oh, this could be it! 'The Brain-Brain Fruit: A Paramecia-type Fructeus, allowing the user a multitude of abilities centered around manipulating the neurological functions of others and themselves to an extreme level.' Hmm...it doesn't really go into the specifics of what the Fructeus abilities  _ are _ . Still, the physical description is spot-on to our specimen here--A lone fruit on a tree with little to no surrounding vegetation, with pink coloring and a shape similar to a brain as well as a thick stem that resembles a medulla oblongata."

Minerva happily clung to her father's robe. "So it  _ is  _ a Fructeus! Mama, what should we do with it? Dissection? Plant tissue samples?"

Corona smiled and took off one of her gloves to rest a hand on her daughter's head. "I'll keep a small sample to analyze, but it won't mean much after it's consumed," she replied. "Though there isn't much research on how a Fructeus degenerates after it's eaten. Hmm...I'll analyze a small piece before it's consumed and then observe any changes afterward."

Minerva stared up at her mother. "So who's gonna eat it? Maybe you could do it and then have one of the doctors in town examine you before and after you do, so you can see how it changes your body and brain structure!"

"Welllll," Corona trailed, "Traditionally, the one who discovers the Fructeus is the one that the gods have chosen to receive it as a gift. Besides, I'm not very knowledgeable on brain structure and function and all that, so its abilities wouldn't be utilized very well by me." She smiled warmly and cupped her daughter's cheek.  _ She really is blessed by her namesake…  _ "I think the gods chose  _ you  _ to receive this, Minerva."

Minerva stared up at her mother with awestruck grey eyes, and then at the fruit lying on the table. "...Me? Really?" Her face broke into a wide smile. "I've...I never thought I'd  _ see  _ a real-life Fructeus, much less eat one myself. Is it...is it really for me?"

Aurelius ruffled his daughter's hair. "While your mother's getting the sample she needs and runs her tests on it, why don't we go into town and let the island priestesses know about this? I'm sure they'll want to celebrate Minerva's gift from…" He chuckled and pointed up at the sky. "Well, from  _ Minerva _ ."

Minerva beamed and looked up at the sky. "Yeah! Let's let them know," she said eagerly. She moved away from her father a bit and unfurled the scarf tied around her ponytail; a dark wine-colored piece of silk adorned with small intricate images of owls and other symbols representing her namesake. It had been used to swaddle her when she was born, and even after years of use, it never seemed to tear or become dirty--whatever the priestesses had done to weave and "bless" the cloth, it had certainly held up over time. Minerva waved the scarf up into the air and smiled up at the sky. Whatever the goddess of wisdom had in store for her, she was going to treasure this gift forever. 


End file.
